The leader of Sinn Fein, Mr Gerry Adams was downbeat tonight when he expressed his disappointment at the UUP's decision to interrupt the sequence of events that was to have concluded a deal moving the peace process in Northern Ireland forward.
He expressed his profound disappointment at this evening's developments and said that Sinn Fein remained fully committed to finding a way to break the current impasse.
Mr Adams quoted at length from the statement issued by the head of the decommissioning body Gen John de Chastelain and said he "did not know what was wrong" with it.
"For 30 years people in this part of Ireland have been killing each other on a daily basis. Had such a statement been made 20, 10 or even five years ago, it would have been seen as a miracle," he said.
He said it was possible that "whatever is done will not be good enough because there is an element of politicians in this part of the world who are against change," he said.
"Maybe," he continued "all of these things will take longer than the people of Ireland deserve."
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